Atelier Past Faculty

Rinde Eckert

Visiting Lecturer

Photo courtesy Rinde Eckert

About

Rinde Eckert, finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a writer, composer, performer and director. His Opera / New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America, and to major festivals in Europe and Asia. Rinde began his career as a writer/performer in the 1980's, writing librettos for composer Paul Dresher (Pioneer, Power Failure, Slow Fire, Ravenshead). Working subsequently with choreographers Margaret Jenkins and Sarah Shelton Mann, Eckert began composing dance scores, including the evening-length Woman, Window, Square for The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. With the creation of his homage to Dante The Gardening of Thomas D in 1992, performed on tour in the United States and France, Eckert began composing and performing his own music/theater pieces. Recent work includes the Obie Award winning And God Created Great Whales (2001) produced by The Foundry Theatre; Highway Ulysses (2003) and Orpheus X (2006), both produced and commissioned by American Repertory Theatre; Horizon (2005) , a play with music and song, ran Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop throughout June, 2007, and An Idiot Divine, an evening of two one-act solo operas. Rinde also wrote the libretto and sings in Steven Mackey's oratorio Dream House, wrote and directed Sound Stage by Paul Dresher for the chamber ensemble Zeitgeist, and wrote and narrated the spoken text of Sandhills Reunion, a concert and recording with composer Jerry Granelli. Rinde Eckert has composed three CD's of songs: Finding My Way Home, Do The Day Over, and Story In Story Out. His 2007 performance engagements include Slow Fire with Paul Dresher / San Francisco; lead singer in Alternate Visions, a techno-opera / Montreal; Dream House with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Boston; An Idiot Divine / Fort Worth; Orpheus X / Edinburgh International Festival. Rinde Eckert's work has been produced by ART, The Foundry Theatre, Center Stage in Baltimore, Culture Project, Dobama Theatre Company and Berkeley Repertory Theater, and been directed by Robert Woodruff, Tony Taccone, Richard ET White, Ellen McLaughlin and David Schweizer. He has received many honors for his work, including two Critics Circle Awards and two Isadora Duncan Awards in San Francisco; a special Obie Award and two Drama Desk Award Nominations in New York (And God Created Great Whales); and Boston's Eliot Norton Award for Best Production by a Large Resident Company (Highway Ulysses). Rinde received the 2005 Marc Blitzstein Award given by The American Academy of Arts and Letters to a lyricist / librettist. He most recently received a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship and was the finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama (Orpheus X). Rinde Eckert taught at Princeton University in 2007, and in 2008 will be Granada Artist-in-Residence at the University of California at Davis Department of Theater and Dance, and is in partnership with four departments at the University of Iowa to create and perform a work exploring the loss of vision. Rinde Eckert lives in New York with his wife, Ellen McLaughlin, the playwright and actress.